The Society for Algerian Studies has been an affiliate academic society of the LSE Middle East Centre since the academic year 2013-14.
As part of the agreement, the MEC organises three events a year at LSE in association with the Society for Algerian Studies. The Society recommends speakers and topics to the MEC and the events bear the names of both parties.
The MEC also hosts the W.H. Lawson Collection in the Centre Library, which is available for members of the Society for Algerian Studies to visit and consult.
About the Society for Algerian Studies
The Society for Algerian Studies was founded in 1993, at the initiative of Dr Hugh Roberts, the Society’s first secretary and a distinguished academic specialist on Algeria. In 2011 Dr Roberts became the Edward Keller Professor of North African and Middle Eastern History at Tufts University, Massachusetts.
Membership of the Society includes prominent academics, diplomats and businessmen, while businesses with an interest in Algeria are invited to participate as corporate members. The Society’s founding president was Sir Alan Munro KCMG, a distinguished former British diplomat who was British ambassador in Algiers from 1984 to 1987.
The aim of the Society is to promote the study, knowledge and understanding of Algeria. This includes Algerian languages, arts, cultures, history, politics, economy, geography, and people. The Society is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that is registered as a charity, and is operated and managed by its members.
Past Events
Caravans, Conquests, and Crossings: Aesthetics of African, Arab, and Mediterranean movement in Algerian Sufi music
Wednesday 9 March 2016
Speaker: Tamara Turner, King's College London
Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies
Democratisation in the Maghreb
Wednesday 3 February 2016
Speaker: Jonathan Hill, King's College London
Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies
Listen to the podcast
The State of Algeria: The politics of a post-colonial legacy
Wednesday 2 December 2015
Speaker: Malika Rebai, National Graduate School of Political Science
Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies
Algeria's Belle Epoque: Memories of the 1970s
Wednesday 21 October 2015
Speaker: Ed McAllister, University of Oxford
Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies
Listen to the podcast
Algeria: A state and its discontents
Tuesday 10 March 2015
Speaker: Lahouari Addi, Sciences Po Lyon
Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies
Listen to the podcast
Berber Government: The Kabyle polity in pre-colonial Algeria
Monday 12 January 2015
Speaker: Hugh Roberts, Tufts University
Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies
Listen to the podcast
1960s Algeria: Women, public space and moral panic
Wednesday 12 November 2014
Speaker: Natalya Vince, University of Portsmouth
Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies
Listen to the podcast
Ben Bella's Algeria: Third Worldism beyond continents and colours
Tuesday 9 December 2014
Speaker: Jeffrey Byrne, University of British Columbia
Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies
Sufis in Algerian Politics: Thriving on the System's Contradictions
Wednesday 11 June 2014
Speaker: Isabelle Werenfels, German Institute for International and Security Studies
Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies
Algeria and its Southern Neighbours: Turbulence in the Sahara
Monday 10 March 2014
Speakers: Yvan Guichaoua, University of East Anglia; Imad Mesdoua
Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies
Listen to the podcast
Western Sahara: Stalemate and its Discontents
Wednesday 22 January 2014
Speaker: Alice Wilson, University of Cambridge
Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies
Listen to the podcast